Brillat-Savarin - The Father of Gastronomy

Link notes

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Savarin's Book

This etext is for Savarin devotees as it requires a lot of linear navigation, ie one page at a time.

However, if it the first time you have met Brillat-Savarin and want to know more, this is your chance at no cost.

The Pioneer

Another picture at this site and a useful vocab list taken from Savarin's work.

There is a link to the Physiologie text which goes directly to XXI - Obesity. From there, it is easy to go further as opposed to the previous link which starts at the beginning of the book.

However ...

.. .. it is a balance between quality of text and ability to navigate. If you use the link in the right hand column you can skate through the pages.
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The best way to see what his book is about is to use the "France - 1800's" link. This is nothing to do with promoting sales of Anne Drayton's translation. It is to do with promoting insight into Savarin's philosophy of food. That can be achieved as there are 37 pages which are reasonably easy to navigate.

No comment is made here regarding the authenticity of any translation.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

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This is the Brillat-Savarin Home/Link page.

He is here because he was the first to talk in a serious way about food itself and then in the context of the social situation.

He wrote a book published in 1826 which is used to this day by those who pursue the desire to understand the meaning of food and drink in western society.

It would be no surprise to anyone to confirm that the French were ahead in the food game in the early nineteenth century. The man under discussion wrote a series of sayings or maxims which, then, went under the name of aphorisms.

After being involved in the various political vicissitudes of France before and during the revolution, Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) fled to the United States where he taught French. In 1797, he was allowed to return and was appointed counsellor to France’s Supreme Court of Appeal, a post he held until his death.

During his adult life, Brillat-Savarin remained a bachelor and spent his leisure time drafting various treatises on economics and history and an essay on the duel. He was interested in archaeology, astronomy, chemistry, and, of course, gastronomy, appreciating good restaurants.

He entertained frequently at home in the Rue de Richelieu in Paris and cooked some specialities himself, including tuna omlette, stuffed pheasant garnished with oranges, and fillet of beef with truffles... On 8 December 1825, two months before his death, the book which was to make him famous had appeared in the bookshops: "Physiologie du gout...”

Thus, the maxims or aphorisms were, essentially, mini-treatises on food in entertainment, hospitality and gastronomic philosophy. Not only did he act as a social commentator, he was able to view the world food situation.

There are many websites giving information on Brillat-Savarin. Probably the best has been found after posting the information given above. Go to:

http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/jeananthelmebrillatsavarin

The above text in green and another slant on his aphorisms beyond that given on this page and the next, can be found at

http://www.lib.k-state.edu/depts/spec/rarebooks/cookery/brillat1826.html

The translation of the aphorisms is, in places, different from those given below. An unusual feature of this site is that you can see the original French.

Regarding the assertion that the French were ahead culture-wise, compare the pictures. In the links at top left of this page, click "France - 1800s". [When you move on to the "Brillat-Savarin - a picture" page, you won't need to see it again.]

Mrs Hibberd's dining room is at the end of the panel below. It depicts family life in a house in London's fashionable Regents Park Terraces in the 1800s. Click the "London - 1800s" link.

These aspects receive mention in the lower panel:

aphorisms - disputable Savarin aphorisms
aphorisms (Savarin's) put into groups
aphorisms, Savarin's - in original order
Brillat-Savarin - first serious talker on food
Brillat-Savarin - Father of Gastronomy
diplomat - Savarin aphorism
French, the - were ahead, culture-wise
hospitality - Savarin's aphorisms
philosophy, lower - Savarin's aphorisms
philosphy, higher (Savarin's)
pie understood widely
pleasure - Savarin's aphorisms
Savarin - diplomat - aphorism
Savarin - disputable aphorisms
Savarin - first serious talker on food
Savarin aux fruits
Savarin's aphorisms in original order
Savarin's higher philosophy
truism - Savarin's aphorisms

Let's move on to puddings and pies.

Contact Alan F Harrison -

avrf23@dsl.pipex.com

1 comment:

Drew Byrne said...: Gastronomic aphorisms may be food for thought, but it all ends up being browned-off in the end.; 6 March 2011 at 03:12

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The Father of Gastronomy

The pie is a widely understood and frequently-presented dish in many English-speaking countries. The "Savarin" has equal status in France and is a pudding-type of dish. It takes its name from Brillat-Savarin. It takes the form of a ring of egg-enriched dough soaked in rum syrup and filled with fruit salad. Its menu description might be "Savarin aux fruits". Some may know the dough in the form of "Baba au rhum".

Brillat-Savarin

1755 - 1826 A French gastronome who wrote "A Physiology of Taste".

His list of maxims or wise sayings, although long, is relevant to this day.

APHORISMS OF THE PROFESSOR

“to serve as prolegomena* to his work and eternal basis to the science. "

* prologue

This list puts the aphorisms in groups and with the more important ones first. That, of course, is a personal view. The Roman numerals have been changed for ease of reading.

The groups have been formed in the awareness that not everyone wants to read the aphorisms in the order in which they were first presented in 1826, the time factor being prominent.

“The Aphorisms …” page, however, gives the original order. If that is the prelude to an essay, you should do the reading!

The group headings are the product of personal reasoning in 2008. The word "philosophy" should not be taken too seriously.

Higher Philosophy

4. Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are.

This is the most-quoted aphorism and in the form – “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

Hospitality

20. To invite a person to your house is to take charge of his happiness as long as he be beneath your roof.

17. To wait too long for a dilatory guest, shows disrespect to those who are punctual.

Here, Savarin puts the majority of his guests before the one who arrives late.

16. The most indispensable quality of a good cook is promptness. It should also be that of the guests.

Savarin demonstrates that the first person singular is an important component of ‘donated hospitality’. The second person plural is involved in ‘received hospitality’. These terms will be developed elsewhere.

18. He who receives friends and pays no attention to the repast prepared for them, is not fit to have friends.

19. The mistress of the house should always be certain that the coffee be excellent; the master that his liquors be of the first quality.

Pleasure

9. The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity, than the discovery of a new star.

Savarin does not delve into Gastronomy in relation to Astronomy. You and I will - on another page.

7. The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all areas; it mingles with all other pleasures, and remains at last to console us for their departure.

5. The Creator, when he obliges man to eat, invites him to do so by appetite, and rewards him by pleasure.

Diplomat

3. The destiny of nations depends on the manner in which they are fed.

A man before his time. The changing fortune of certain African and other countries bears him out.

Lower Philosophy

15. A cook may be taught, but a man who can roast, is born with the faculty.

14. A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman who has lost an eye.

Truisms

1. The universe would be nothing were it not for life and all that lives must be fed.

2. Animals fill themselves; man eats. The man of mind alone knows how to eat.

10. Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking.

6. Gourmandise is an act of our judgment, in obedience to which, we grant a preference to things which are agreeable, over those which have not that quality.

Disputable

9. The order of food is from the most substantial to the lightest.

The modern nutritionist would recommend moving from light to heavy dishes.

12. The order of drinking is from the mildest to the most foamy and perfumed.

There were more foamy and perfumed drinks in Savarin's time than today.

13. To say that we should not change our drinks is a heresy; the tongue becomes saturated, and after the third glass yields but an obtuse sensation.

This is more irrelevant than disputable today. Savarin was not considering beer drinkers who drink gallons of the same brew all evening. Wine drinkers may be classed as being more adventurous.

8. The table is the only place where one does not suffer, from ennui (boredom) during the first hour.

Savarin must have forgotten his visits to the theatre and other places.

The source of the aphorisms (in blue) and in original order is:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LueLb6qge3oC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=%22The+man+of+mind+alone+knows+how+to+eat.%22&source=web&ots=xY8CNT46ts&sig=A6-KYfMYnUG2EkZKXpqTbJAn4vg&hl=en&ei=2fiWSdCvO5DRjAea6uzeAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA4,M1

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/thphy10.txt

…………………. –o-

That ends the list but Savarin is an endless source of quotations relevant to the essence of Gastronomy. This analysis by grouping leads us towards a subsequent appraisal which will be added later.

The Home page included a working definition of Gastronomy and as evaluation has started, it is an appropriate time to look at it again.

Gastronomy is the reasoned comprehension of everything connected with the nourishment of man.

Suffice it to say because it is now lunch time, this statement clearly goes too far. Does the wind blow the food onto the plate? If it blows the crops away, then perhaps. It has changed this year’s gastronomy – that which arrives on the plate.
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But he was a lawyer and today would specialise in the small print on contracts. Note "the reasoned comprehension" clause in his statement. It helps determine which way the wind blows.
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We now proceed to Savarin's Gastronomy

DEFINITION OF GASTRONOMY.

Gastronomy is a scientific definition of all that relates to man as a feeding animal.

Its object is to watch over the preservation of man by means of the best possible food.

It does so by directing, according to certain principles, all those who procure, search for, or prepare things which may be converted into food.

To tell the truth, this is what moves cultivators, vine-dressers, fishermen, huntsmen, and the immense family of cooks, whatever title or qualification they bear, to the preparation of food.

Gastronomy is a chapter of natural history, for the fact that it makes a classification of alimentary substances.

Of physics, for it examines their properties and qualities.

Of chemistry, from the various analysis and decomposition to which it subjects them.

Of cookery, from the fact that it prepares food and makes it agreeable.

Of commerce, from the fact that it purchases at as low a rate as possible what it consumes, and displays to the greatest advantage what it offers for sale.

Lastly it is a chapter of political economy, from the resources it furnishes the taxing power, and the means of exchange it substitutes between nations.

Gastronomy rules all life, for the tears of the infant cry for the bosom of the nurse; the dying man receives with some degree of pleasure the last cooling drink, which, alas! he is unable to digest.

It has to do with all classes of society, for if it presides over the banquets of assembled kings, it calculates the number of minutes of ebullition which an egg requires.

The material of gastronomy is all that may be eaten; its object is direct, the preservation of individuals. Its means of execution are cultivation, which produces; commerce, which exchanges;industry, which prepares; and experience, which teaches us to put them to the best use.

DIFFERENT OBJECTS OF GASTRONOMY.

Gastronomy considers taste in its pleasures and in its pains. It has discovered the gradual excitements of which it is susceptible; it regularizes its action, and has fixed limits, which a man who respects himself will never pass.

It also considers the action of food or aliments on the moral of man, on his imagination, his mind, his judgment, his courage, and his perceptions, whether he is awake, sleeps, acts, or reposes.

Gastronomy determines the degree of esculence [being good to eat] of every alimentary subject; all are not presentable under the same circumstances.

Some can not be eaten until they are entirely developed. Such like capres [capers], asparagus, sucking pigs, squabs [young domestic pigeon] , and other animals eaten only when they are young.

Others, as soon as they have reached all the perfection to which they are destined, like melons, fruit, mutton, beef, and grown animals.

Others when they begin to decompose, such as snipe, wood-cock and pheasant. Others not until cooking has destroyed all their injurious properties, such as the potato, manioc, and other substances.

Gastronomy classifies all of these substances according to their qualities, and indicates those which will mingle, and measuring the quantity of nourishment they contain, distinguishes those which should make the basis of our repast, from those which are only accessories, and others which, though not necessary, are an agreeable relief, and become the obligato accompaniment of convivial gossip.

It takes no less interest in the beverages intended for us, according to time, place and climate. It teaches their preparation and preservation, and especially presents them in an order so exactly calculated, that the pleasure perpetually increases, until gratification ends and abuse begins.

Gastronomy examines men and things for the purpose of transporting, from one country to another, all that deserves to be known, and which causes a well arranged entertainment, to be an abridgement of the world in which each portion is represented.

UTILITY OF GASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE.

Gastronomical knowledge is necessary to all men, for it tends to augment the sum of happiness. This utility becomes the greater in proportion as it is used by the more comfortable classes of society; it is indispensable to those who have large incomes, and entertain a great deal, either because in this respect they discharge an obligation, follow their own inclination, or yield to fashion.

They have this special advantage, that they take personal pleasure in the manner their table is kept; they can, to a certain point, superintend the depositories of their confidence, and even on many occasions direct them. ........

INFLUENCE OF GASTRONOMY IN BUSINESS.

In men not far removed from a state of nature, it is well known that all important affairs are discussed at their feasts. Amidst their festivals savages decide on war and peace; we need not go far to know that villages decide on all public affairs at the cabinet.

This observation has not escaped those to whom the weightiest affairs are often confided. They saw that a full stomached individual was very different from a fasting one; that the table established a kind of alliance between the parties, and made guests more apt to receive certain impressions and submit to certain influences. This was the origin of political gastronomy.

Entertainments have become governmental measures, and the fate of nations is decided on in a banquet. This is neither a paradox nor a novelty but a simple observation of fact. Open every historian,from the time of Herodotus to our own days, and it will be seen that, not even excepting conspiracies, no great event ever took place, not conceived, prepared and arranged at a festival.

Go to

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/thphy10.txt

to see the full text.

Further analysis will be added.

If you are a student, this might be your first essay in Gastronomy. If you are not a student of Gastronomy in the formal sense, the essay topic is intended as an hors d'oeuvre.

Brillat-Savarin had dishes named after him in his native France. Few in Britain, America etc have heard of him.Scores of notables are remembered within French Gastronomy. In Britain, there is no Churchill cheese or Henry VIII Hot-pot and yet Henri IV had something similar for the French to remember him.

If you are from another country, write your essay in the same context. Are important people remembered on the menu at home?

Discuss.

Brillat-Savarin - The Father of Gastronomy

Link notes

Tuesday 18 November 2008

1 comment:

The Father of Gastronomy

Mrs Hibberd's 1800 dining room